A Simple Complication called Life

Bhool Bhulaiya (2007)

Have you felt a sense of deja vu while watching a movie? I guess many remakes give the feeling. But how do you feel when you watch the same movie with a different name, a different language and different actors.

Priyadarshan’s “Bhool Bhulaiya” is a exact copy of “Manichithrathazhu”. When I say exact copy it is almost 99% ‘same-to-same’. except for some scenes which could not be replicated from Malayalam, it does not change at all. The dialogs, acting, story, expressions, everything is same. Even the furniture is same. I don’t think the chair which Akshay Kumar sits during the first night in the palace is available in Rajasthan. I think it is typical Kerala furniture but I could be wrong. Although I think the furniture is a wrong reason to criticize any movie.

So when I had a choice between the weepy “Laga Chunri Main Daag” and “Bhool Bhulaiya”, I choosed the later and as for Priyadarshan it can be only said that;

He screwed it!

I wish, Priyadarshan had not remained so faithful to the original. I mean I could almost replace Mohanlal’s subtitles by Akshay’s subtitles and nobody will notice the difference. The same meaning of the original not the same acting as Mohanlal.

The story is same but now the place is Benaras. I did not want to compare it with the original but the writers and directors were hell bent to force me to compare. On second thoughts, what did the writers write and what did the director direct? As I said the movie is scene by scene copy of the original and no variation to adapting to a new location and difference in the culture. It looks like they watched the original Malayalam DVDs and directed the actors to act accordingly

The big problem is that the first half becomes a ghost movie and the second half becomes Akshay Kumar film. The story is about a couple who stay in the ancient palace said to be haunted. After they start staying strange things happen which they suspect is due to mental illness of a family member. A psychiatrist is called who finds the mystery behind the illness and ghost
The basic idea or trigger of dual personality in the original was because of Shobana’s past. Her lonely childhood and her fascination with stories of kings and demons, the big palace and the fascination of the stories associated with it. Also the husband, Suresh Gopi is busy and although he loves his wife, he cannot help with her loneliness. That loneliness itself triggers her adventure in the palace. Vidya Balan meanwhile is surrounded by people and is quite chirpy and happy herself.

In BB, Shiney Ahuja is more of a happy-go-lucky person. Its difficult to believe that Avni played by Vidya Balan would go into mental depression as she is quite contented with life. How would a perfectly stable happy person be suddenly be unhappy and depressed. The original had Shobana slowly turning into the dual personality trait. Her body language changes as the film progresses. Vidya Balan meanwhile goes from being very happy to suddenly being unstable.

In the original, the reason Suresh Gopi starts suspecting Vinaya Prasad is because he thinks she is jealous about him marrying Shobana when he was supposed to tie the knot with her. The tension between Vinaya Prasad and Suresh Gopi is evident from the first scene together. A sense of guilt is seen on Suresh Gopi’s face because he married Shobana.

Shiney Ahuja suspecting Amisha Patel is not justified here. One day he is fine with her and he even greets her quite well without any sense of wrong doing or guilty feeling and when the events occur, he blames Amisha patel for the problems without any logical reasoning and provocation. It seems that Amisha Patel is there only because a similar character was there in the original. The original had the 2nd heroine being silent because of her divorce but Amisha Patel cannot marry Shiney Ahuja as he marries Vidya Balan and Amisha Patel is perfectly ok with it.

Shinet Ahuja is ok in the role of the husband.

Paresh Rawal is for comic relief and is strictly ok. Rajpal Yadav is just for 3-4 scenes. He should be credited as guest appearance.

Vidya Balan plays the average heroine in the first half. She was good in the climax though.

The movie belongs to Akshay Kumar even though he is in the second half. He drives the picture from then on which should not have been the case. I guess that is the biggest problem of Bhool Bhulaiya. Its an actor driven movie rather than story driven

So how does a movie which is almost an exact replica of the original cannot be as good as original. Well! I don’t know. The above reasons or the same reason why “Ghost” and “Pyar Ka Saaya” are totally different even though copied frame to frame.

La Love
Couldn’t you guess from the promos. The story line is very much similar to Marathi movie “Doghi” but without the big stars.

Tom Joseph
Thank you. Its an ok movie.

Subhendu
Please read the review again. Manichithrathazhu was directed by Fazil. The story was the hero there and the actors did not matter. Yes Mohanlal and Shobana did make it memorable but BB turns out to give more importance to Akshay Kumar rather than the story and thats why it fails. But then again, its my opinion.

THIS MOVIE IS a scene to scene copy of the bengali movie RAJMAHAL. since we dont watch a lot of bengali movies…most people wouldnt have known…i happen to chance upon rajmahal quite sumtime back…and god after seeing bhul bhulaiya …it was a carbon copy..ncluding the dialogues and all the scenes….!!!only the bollywood ppl have spent a lot more money……its a good movie..but once u know tht it has not an ounce of originality…it spoils the FUN…

There is small factual error in the review. This movie is set in Rajasthan and not in Banaras as mentioned by the reviewer at one place.

There is one thing that I haven’t seen anyone noticing (and doesn’t get reflected in any of the reviews) which sets this movie away from other. Few dialogues and sequences have been purposely put in the movie (not sure if these were there in the original version too) that if watched keenly can leave one feeling really unsure as to whether it was really a case of DID (dissociated identity disorder) or was it really a spirit possessing her.

1. In the beginning of movie workers renovating the palace tell Paresh Rawal that the “bed” that goes into Shiney’s room is so heavy that they will need at least 5 people to pick it. Later, when Shiney at the request of Akshay tells Vidya to not go for shopping, she changes to the dancer personality and lifts the very same bed with one hand? Why would director show this? A person suffering from DID definitely can’t do it however it is generally believed that a person possessed with a spirit have been known to show such extraordinary capabilities. (I am not arguing in favor or existence of spirits, only putting the generally believed facts).

2. If this was only a DID case why would she attack others (Nandini and Akshay), break the camcorder, burn Akshay’s bag and try to hide herself from others until the very end.

3. Although Akshay (erroneously??) says so, a person suffering from DID can’t do things that he / she hasn’t learned such as dancing, speaking another language (Bengali in this case) and so on? So how could she do all that unless she was possessed?

4. Why would her voice change when she changes to the dancer? She never heard dancer speak. Or did her voice change due to dancer’s spirit possessing her (as, it is generally believed, happens when spirits possess).

5. When she put poison in Shiney’s tea that was daytime and not usual night hours when Shiney was asleep and she could easily change personalities. And there was nothing that could have triggered that personality change. It could be better explained with spirit influencing here to put poison the in the tea.

6. The character of exorcist is not that of a fraud. He is shown as well traveled in the parapsychologist community and is well accepted. And he still believes in the science of starts, spirits etc. Akshay too has high regards for him (calls him Guru Ji). He too has high regards for Akshay and says that if he is here then why do they need him. Does it suggest that Akshay too believes in the science of starts and spirits, however, he deals with it with more scientifically acceptable style and approach and explain it in a scientifically acceptable language than that of an exorcist.

5. Akshay refers to parapsychology while dealing with this case. What is parapsychology? Per Wikipedia… Parapsychology (from the Greek: παρά para, “alongside” + psychology) is the study of ostensibly paranormal psychological phenomena. Phenomena studied include extra-sensory perception (telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance) , psychokinesis, and survival of consciousness after death (reincarnation and hunting); parapsychologists call these phenomena psi, a neutral term non-suggestive of what causes the phenomena or experiences. Does it suggest that in reality not just a case of DID but more of a paranormal phenomenon?

6. Akshay says time and again that this case is outside the realm of the normal psychology and needs a different treatment. What is this different treatment?

7. DID is controversial theory and there is really no unanimity on its existence.

8. If there was only a change of personality, then why did she initially refuse to tell her name and sit and then responded to exorcist when he chanted Mantras and threw ? As generally believed only a person possessed by spirit will respond that way.

I think writer / director either left it to the viewers to decide or has not-so-overtly told that it is actually a spirit.

Meee
I haven’t seen Rajmahal but I have seen Manichitratazhu which was released in 1993. When was Rajmahal released?

Anand
That was a fantastic analysis but as I review the film, I don’t want to give up many secret out.
The film is set in Benaras but the locations used are in Rajasthan. Its mentioned at the start of the movie somewhere.
As correctly pointed by you, the movie does leave it to the audience to decide if Vidya is really possessed or is she mentally sick like DID.
A lot is due to the direction of Priyadarshan. If you see the original, the script there had successfully brought to the conclusion that she indeed was mentally ill. However it was also left a little to the viewers imagination that she may have been possessed and the climax satisfies the spirit who is made to believe that she indeed killed the king.
One more point is when she puts poison in Shiney’s tea she is already into the advance stage of the illness and the time of day or night does not matter. As for the last exorcism scene, it may be to make it more dramatic and occupying vidya’s mind in such a way that she does not realizes that she is being treated.
Still a nice analysis from your side and I agree many question still remain unanswered and thats the beauty of the story

The bengali movie Raj Mahal was released in 2005. As far as I know, the original movie is the Malayalam version.

As far the hindi version is concerned, the acting of Mohan Lal and Shobhana in the malayalam version is way beyond the league of Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan. In my opinion, Bhool Bhulaiya is a fantastic movie for those who have not seen the original malayalam version and does justice to viewers who are not privy to the regional versions. The very nature of the movie requires that the actors and actresses show emotions and subtle expressions, which I feel are missing from the hindi version. I haven’t seen the Telugu, Kannada, Bengali and Tamil versions.

Trivia: (source Wikipedia)

* Manichitrathazu was one of the all time hits of Malayalam films running for more than 600 days.It is also considered as one of the classics of Indian movies, which brought the National Award for Shobhana. This had also spurred to other remakes in other languages later such as Aapthamitra in Kannada starring Vishnuvardhan, Chandramukhi in Tamil and Telugu starring Rajnikant and the recently released Bhool Bhulaiya in Hindi.

*Another interesting fact that this movie fetched maximum rating consistently for its television screening. Fourteen years after its release this film so far screened more than 12 times in kerala’s most popular channel Asianet.This film has got the maximum TRP rating on every screening.Interestingly TRP ratings were increasing by every year.

* The thriller plus humor(less, only in required places) treatment was the reason behind this film’s major success.Both critics and masses have shown thumbs up for this movie.

* Notably shobhana’s national award winning was interesting, as she won her award for a film which was the biggest hit till that date. It’s a very rare phenomenon where a big hit film’s lead actor gets a national award.

* The film also won national award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment.

Dear Anand, I am Arun. I have seen all versions of Manichitrazathu, in its original, Tamil, Kannada and now in Hinid. I would like to explain to your doubts.

Friend, In Bonvivant’s review, he said rightly at at many scenes, they shown the Varnasi Ghats and Ganga banks. As Ganga Banks are not in Rajasthan, but in Banaras, it should be assumed that the movie teller want the story to set in Banaras, but the availability of suitable ghostly appearance haveli has made them to shift the focus to Rajasthan.

1. In original Movie, Mohanlal says that the diease is Multiple Personality disorder or Dual Personality. A dual Personality exists without knowing each other. In Psychology, an artificial created personality within one’s own personality, is more dominant than his/her’s own. Hence the dominant personality, in this case, the Manjulika dominates Avnis. In a MPD, when the dominant personality arouses, it arouses the sub concious mind, which has abudant of pyschic energies. These pyschic energies can be transferred into Body power and make impossible things made possible. We see Great Saints like Kabir walking out of Fire or Guru Nanak making blood out of roti, is all because of they using their mental power, acquired to meditation, can access the sub concious mind’s supernatural powers. Any person can do it, only thing is that, he has to unlock the sub concious mind. Here Avni, due to her intense empathy to Manjulika and her past, made her mind to convince that she is Manjulika and this dual personality opened Avni’s Sub concious mind. So for her, lifting a Bed is not a big problem.

2. Due to MPD, the dominant personality Manjulika wants herself to be kept hidden from others that she is none other Avni. She attacks Akshay, because, the Avni knows a Pyschirist is coming to haveli. The Dominant Personality in her, started fearing, will she will be tracked. For this, she wants a cover to convince, its a ghosty or Nandini’s work. Manjulika’s want to prove, she should not be easily identified, only attacking Shiney. She destroyed the cam, as it was in the CAM, where Shiney’s crowing cermony was shot. It was this crowning cermony, made Avni’s hidden personality to associate Shiney as the Old King. The Manjulika’s personality wants to destroy, anything that glorified Shiney, the old King.

3. As I said, The sub concious mind is a powerhouse of all energies of this universe. It can do anything. But its kept locked from Human’s direct awareness. We are least concious about this mind. Thats why we call it as Sub concious mind. When this is unlocked, it can do anything. Using this dominant personality, the empathy of being manjulika made her open Avni’s Sub concious mind, making it possible for Avni to say anything. As we see Sai Baba saying Malayalam or Sinhala, even if he doesn’t know the language, its because he opened his sub concious mind and its powers. Thats use of his mediatation. But in case of MPD, its because of diease of dominant personality.

4. The Voice change over, was not shown in Original Malayalam version. In Malayalam, Shobhana was speaking in her own tone, other than a slight bass added, when she becomes the dancer, because that moment she is aggressive and harsh. The voice turnover was started only when it was shown in Tamil and Kannada, where the story was misintrepreted as Ghosty tale, not pyschological thriller.

5. In MPD, always dominant personality was active. But the thing is that, it may not surfaces out always. Because dominant personality is so powerful to control the original personality. Her Manjulika was always active in avni and she wants to kill the King (Shiney). The Dominant personality is always looking for opporunities. Thanks why, Avni posions shiney, as at that moment, her personality shifts. But in original, Shobhana shifts her personality gradually, not all of sudden.

6. The Exorcist in original Malayalam, was protraied as a Great Vedic Scholar. He is a Pandit in Malayalam version, not mere pujari. Being so, he knows all sciences, including tantric and scientific. Here, the Exoricist performs pujas, only to create an atmosphere for Avni and her mind, as she was fanastized in these things. It doesn’t means he was trying to push out Manjulika. It was only to satisfy the Avni, as her’s deep mindset was full of these type of pujas and homas. To create an impression

6. In Malayalam, this was because, normally in psychology, either we make the patient to know that he/she has a diease or make others know and then cure a patient in chains or hospital.

Here, Mohanlal can’t make Shobhana know that she is a Patient, as he knows, she is very delicate and can commit suicide or have a heartattack. Nor he can’t make other inform this matter and make her complete Manjulika and chain her, as then there is not curement, as she becomes completely out of control. Being full Manjulika, she will attack Shiney all times without realizing that he is her husband, as she becomes completely mad.

The different way is that to create an enviroment where Avni can recollect back to her past, as well make her survive even after making her known that she is the Manjulika. In that case, after she becomes complete Manjulika in that evening, still the Avni Personality doesn’t fade in her memories. She can recollect the surroundings in Avni’s personality.

8. Lastly I must tell as Manjulika, she was ready to tell her name only after Mantras were chanted, because the hidden Avni’s personality is responding to her old past, where she was used to respond to Mantra chanting. This was shown in original Malayalam, where Shobhana in very small age, used to respond lot to mantras and pujas. But these was not shown Hindi.

And to many extent Priyadarshan couldn’t explain thins properly in Hindi, as crowd and audience of Hindi and Malayalam were different. I do understand, in Hindi, always the youth are the only market to cater movies. And they watch only once or maximum two. Whereas the original Malayalam was projected as Family movie, were audience used to watch it twice or thrice to understand the hidden meanings of the movie.

Moreover a youngster is not bothered too much with psychic aspect of movie, whereas in Malayalam, it was an ABSOLUTE psychic thriller.

Yes…
I too agree dat Bhulbhulaiyya is A SCENE-BY-SCENE COPY of a Bengali Filam -RAJMAHAL(released in 2005)
Anybody can chk it…
I too was a die-hard fan of Bhulbhulaiyaa
until I happened to see the original bengali version today….
Almost every dialog & scenes seemed to be translated from it….

Bhool bhulaiyaa is an exact copy of the bengali film “rajmahal” i saw the bengali film today and its uncanny how every scene of bhool bhulaiyaa is the same!??
my only question is: Did Priyadarshan copy his malayali version from the bengali one?? who is the original script-writer??
did priyadarshan buy the script and/or story of rajmahal or was it the other way round?

Umm, I have this little doubt, if it was really Avni’s MPD .. who used to haunt the haveli earlier? Even before Avni landed in the haveli, the last night Paresh Rawal saw shadows of a lady, and the noise of her ghunghru etc.., what was that?

The other girl, who lost her voice in the haveli.. what was her story?

Dude, you left nothing else to be said. I was hunting for someone to tell me whether the original made any sense, cos watching BB it was impossible to imagine that this was the remake of a “hit”. Priyadarshan, sadly, is going the Ram Gopal Varma way and letting his spot-boy direct the movies…

Why don’t we have regional movies available with good subtitles at affordable prices? Linguistically handicapped people like me miss out on so many great films!!

Well, the bengali film “rajmahal” was released in 2005 and malayalam film “manichitrathazhu” was released in 1993.
Moving on to comparisons, i have seen kannada,tamil/telugu,hindi, and malayalam versions. “Aaptamitra”(kannada) was released on 2004 and it is a remake of “manichitrathazhu” and although the story/plot and the jobs of the characters are same as the malayalam one, it centered arnd the psychiatrist instead of the female lead and this kannada movie had many changes scriptwise. Then “chandramukhi”(tamil) was remade since rajnikanth saw the kannada movie, he requested to be remade in tamil. In addition, there are similarities between “aaptamitra” and “chandramukhi” and the tamil one was released on april 14, 05 & also dubbed in telugu. After this came, “bhool bhulaiya”(hindi) which was released on october 12, 07. This movie however was true to the malayalam one, in which priyadarhsan was a 2nd unit director for the malayalam movie. In terms of the content of these movies in separate languages, one has to understand the it was made according the audience tastes. For instance, kannada&tamil/telugu versions had their star actor so the story gave importance to these stars and made it for entertainment’s sake, so the audiences will like it. Likewise, bhool bhulaiya serves to the taste of hindi audiences like all akshay movies do. The malayalam movie had no entertainment rather it was just psychic-thriller with great performances from the whole cast, and till today its a classic and hit movie. So don’t compare each of these movies to others, since the movie was made according to different audiences tastes.Moreover, these movies made between 2004-2007 have improved technically and audiences are also different in terms of accpeting movies. So in 1993, the malayalam movie suited to that generation and still continues to do so just beacuse of the genre and content of the story. So please, if your forced to compare the movies just think your wasting your time, and just watch the movies according to each director’s point of view.

People don’t make remakes because they want a different movie, they make remakes because they like the movie so much they want to try their hand at it, meaning different style, mannerism, settings, languages, different artists etc. but the same story. Content is Power.
I don’t discourage remakes, but if the remake in question cannot compare to its original then it is not worth watching it and hence a sore for the viewers who saw the original.

Bhulbhulaya might have been a big hit for the hindi movie viewers who might chance upon this topic (MPD) for the first time, but that doesn’t mean that Bhulbhulaya
stands out better and hence cannot be compared to its original.
An intelligent movie if remade and done more intelligently would have won raves, not Bhulbhulaya!!
Movies should not be remade for different audience tastes, or only for a particular actor in mind, if done so it won’t have a long shelf life.
Priyadarshan was part of the Second Unit directors of Manichithrathazhu, but I should say he glamorized the movie and changed the content rather unabashedly sans cleverness.

As for “watch the movies according to each director’s point of view” — really?? hmm, that will be the day!!
That’s the last thing to do, every person has his own right to have his own views and critique if he feels something is wrong.
I implore all who watch movies to form your own opinion instead of the director’s opinion hammered on you.

After reading all your comments I really don;t know that why you all are after the movie story??
just watch the fil and enjoyyyyyyyy
it’s really a grreat movue and i think that priyadarshen has done a very good job(although i’m not an expert).
but i can say that bb’s set were more realistic thn its tamil vrsn. they hv shwn in the mve that evn aftr 2-3 decades the lockedd roo ws still in superb condition . can anyone tell me that hw it is possible?
had they appointed a spot boy to take care of that room?
or it’s their style that they just spnd money in wrng direction??? i don know what went wrong but i’m sure that bb is abve all of them….